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tv   News  Al Jazeera  January 20, 2016 2:00pm-2:31pm EST

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>> stepping up the fight against isil. the group faces losses across iraq and syria. >> i'm david foster. you're watching al jazeera live from london. also coming up, syriaens burning anything they can find to keep war. pakistani taliban condemns an attack on an university that kil killed 20 people and
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wounded dozens of others. and the reality show where the name of the game is to become president. >> the fight against the islamic state in iraq and the levant, one of the areas on which they focused was the need to capitalize on recent gains against the group. isil has lost about a quarter of its territory in iraq and syria, and defense ministers from the u.s. and france hosted the meeting. the australian, british, dutch were part of the talks. russia was not part of the talks. they are also bombing isil, but they were not invited to paris. secretary of state john kerry broached the idea when he met his russian counterpart. >> this was the highest level of
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meetings. their objective to accelerate and intensify the campaign in iraq and syria. the u.s. navy launches bombing raids from an aircraft carrier in the gulf. the coalition wants to weaken isil and degrade it's ability to capture and hold territory. part of the strategy is to target logistics and resources. these images show jets targeting areas controlled by isil in eastern syria. and western leaders need to current isil's message. >> it's resilience should strength our action. we should keep fighting on all fronts. we'll root them out on the ground and in people's minds. >> when it comes to the fighting on the ground, the coalition
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depends almost entirely on local iraqi and syrian forces. several countries are providing them with training. but there's no talk of putting their own boots on the ground we're enabling local motivating forces. as the only practical strategic approach not only to defeating isil, but also of sustaining its defeat there after. >> it was a large gathering. nevertheless, there were some notable absences from the table. russia, which is carrying out it's own airstrikes in syria, and turkey which serves as a root for isil fighters and supplies. >> we saw this coalition in history already, but in afghanistan, and i don't think that hugely in afghanistan. two important partners are
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missing, which is turkey and russia. >> this meeting mostly focused on iraq and syria, but isil is gaining strength in libya, and has extended it's reach further into africa. >> isil is not a conventional enemy, and this is not a conventional war. the battle lines keep shifting, sometimes to the heart of the western capital. >> bringing together a much larger group of coalition members. an acknowledgment, that isil is proving more tenacious than expected. jacky rowland, al jazeera, paris. >> so there they were having those talks in paris, at the same time the u.s. secretary of state john kerry was getting together with the russian mornin foreign minister sergei
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lavrov. >> we don't have any thoughts in moving from january and february. this is the position of both russia and the united states. we're confident in the coming days in january these talks will begin. >> well, our diplomatic editor james bays joins me live now from the united nations in new york with a view to taking this forward. they have a bigger group coming together. or perhaps not, they don't know how to put it all together. >> clearly they want these trucks. these talks have to happen soon, but there is a disagreement over who should represent the syrian opposition. russians say they don't have a
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representative list, and they'll come up with their own list. i'm told perhaps three names could be taken from the russian list and added to the riyadh list. the opposition not at all happy about this, but what you have to remember is if you have the united states and russia both agreeing they want something, those two superpowers in the end probably can twist people's arms. i think its more likely than not that the talks will take place at some point next week. maybe in a few days. but the real fear between the u.s. and russia is this whole process could unravel. remember, this time around they put the process in place by getting the international syrian support group. or the international regional actors around the table, a series of meetings in vienna, the last one here in new york. the reality is this. i'm told by diplomats they can't--if they want to reboot this process, have another
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international syria support group. they believe it would be impossible right now to give iran and saudi arabia to attend. they have to work on what has already been agreed. that's why there is a limited window of opportunity before this all unvalves. they'll have maximum level of getting everyone on talks even if it's not to everyone's liking. it may not be on mone monday, but the effort is to try to get it going on next week. >> james bays, our diplomatic editor at the united nations. >> destroying the oldest church in iraq. it was built more than 1,400 years ago. isil fight whose control large
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parts of iraq and syria have destroyed historic buildings which they consider to be contrary to their interprettation of islam. iraq's prime minister is a he'll go after those sectarian fighters. we have the report from baghdad. >> the streets look calm for now but the mood remains tense. while many school children are back in classrooms, and bakeries are selling bread once more, the remnants of last week's sectarian violence are easy to spot. from the wreckage from a cafe frequented by militiamen to the burnt out remains of a sunni owned market fire bombed in reprisal attacks. >> the sunnies are often accused
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of siding with isil and harboring terrorism. today the displaced are not able to return to their homes. >> this sunni family are so scared they've asked us to blur their faces and not release their names. the last thing they wanted to do was to leave. >> we were ordered to go. we were displaced by the militias. now i have my entire family living in one room that i can barely afford. >> for the time being they've moved, and have no idea when and if they'll be able to go back. >> the cities were fire bombed in the last few months. members of our communities were killed, too. >> located in de diyala province, and since isil was pushed out of the town in 2015 shia militias have essentially been in charge of the area
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there. >> when iraq's prime minister visited on tuesday he vowed to restore security for all residents. but to many sunni lawmakers those promises ring hollow, and they're openly accusing the government for not doing more to rein in militias and protecting the sunni. >> in diyala, for instance, there have been many violations in several towns and villages. the government is not able to control the initial action or the reaction. >> as it battles isil and confronts a growing humanitarian crisis, i the security forces and government are stretched very then. it makes an already volatile situation that much more dire.
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>> a gun and bomb attack in pakistan. there are some 40 kilometers away from when the taliban killed 140 people from the attack in december 2014. the pakistan taliban said that it was not behind this latest deadly attack, and it has condemned a splinter group which has since claimed responsibility. >> security forces now parole the field along side the university. gunmen had earlier taken advantage of the winter to scale the wall, storm the buildings and open fire. >> we heard firing from the back of the campus.
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we thought maybe some people were fighting. they said stay in the rooms, don't go out. >> classes for the university had begun for the day. 3,000 students studied here and there were hundreds of others at the university, too. 600 special guest were there to mark the death of the man for whom the university is named after. he was founder of the liberal anti-taliban political party. the same region fighters attacked a school in 2014 killing 134 children. it was link to the pakistan taliban. hundreds of suspects were killed or arrested. in this latest, they combed the campus for hours looking for gunmen. they say they're now confident they've killed them all, and an
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investigation is underway leaving families and thousands of students to mourn the dead. al jazeera. >> we have this story coming up, the dawn raids to break up a his skated human smuggling ring. >> the world economic forum. the theme was supposed to be the revolution and technology impacting our lives. but it's the economy in china and the falling oil prices and threat of recession that really has people talking. the only way to get better is to challenge yourself,
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>> these are the global headlines here on al jazeera. the u.s. defense secretary. cash carter calling for a meeting involving all 26 countries who are involved in the coalition against isil. they intensify the campaign against the group. secretary of state john kerry and sergei lavrov say there are no plans to move next week's talks despite disagreement over who should be invited. and the plentier group over pakistan say they were behind the attack in the city of peshawa. ttotunisian protests,
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unrest has spread to three other cities. in syria people trapped in areas close to the capital of damascus, tearing down homes to get fuel for fire. the number of villages being cut off by the syrian forces and their allies for two years. >> winter is harsh, scraps of wood, pieces of garbage, and anything that burns are pushed into the homemade stove. >> my dad and i made this heater. we don't have diesel fuel so we use garbage to make sure that my brothers and sisters stay warm. the smoke chokes us sometimes. >> they use old pipes and bits
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of metal to build the family's only source of warmth. it is almost impossible to get heating fuel. the things they would normally burn now cost far too much. you see the charcoal, we can't even use this. it is too expensive. haggling used to go common at the market. but now since the airstrikes there are no negotiations. for most people prices are impossibly high. >> some of the wood here is from old houses. people are taking them down because this is all they have to sell. sometimes they cost up to 100 syrian pounds. people can't pay that price. they don't have the money.
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>> they are cut off from fresh water, food, and medicine. even winter seems to have turned against them. >> al jazeera has been hearing from the people living there, they say they're grateful for the supplies they've received, but above all they want the siege to end. first of all i have to say thank god for what i have received, but let's face it, it is very little. it will not be enough. it may last 15 days. but if the siege continues we'll go back and relive the same misery. we need help. the world must do something about this horror. >> the help was good, but it's not enough. people were dying of hunger, starving. they can't feed the children after what they've been through.
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we're cooking but we're still hungry because we're worried about what will happen next. we thank the world for everything, but we want them to lift the siege and open the roads so we don't have to be stuck here. >> the hardship is still here. it didn't go anywhere. there is no wood, no heating oil, nothing. what can i tell you? the situation is still miserable. we hope they open the road and lift the siege the sooner the better. >> police say they have broken up a human smuggling ring. they were sent across the mediterranean in freight ships to europe. germany's federal police chief said that the traffickers would be directly responsible for the deaths of any refugees. >> those who cram more than
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1,700 people into the holding space of a run down cargo vessel that is ready for the scrap heap and then set the auto pilot for the coast line while they run for safety while they leave the fate of those on board. >> the immigration and tribunal heard from three teenagers and a mentally ill 26-year-old placed in intolerable conditions. the case could set a precedent for those who come to britain. the government insisted the group had to seek asylum from france. the european union must find a more equitable way of distributing refugees. >> of course we want to be part
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of the international conventio conventions. but we ended up in a very claimic situation because the number increased very dramatically after summer last year. it was an unsustainable situation. we needed to maintain measures and bring down the numbers of refugees going in to sweden, and we need to keep that situation because we need also to make sure that our society, and the welfare system is functioning. it needs to be done. if we cannot handle this situation as an european union, the european union in itself is at risk. it will be much, much weaker. the schengen cooperation may be at risk. there is much at stake. i believe that the countries today don't want to take that responsibility and need to see that other perspective, the larger perspective. and it's not easy but we need to
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make that discussion. >> meeting for the forum in switzerland, an annual summit that is over shadowed by the falling price of oil and china is reporting it's lowest economic growth in a quarter of a century. kamal santa maria reports. >> you're guaranteed two things, snow, lots of t and economic news. but on day one of 2016 the news was mostly bad. the fall of the chinese markets overnight, another drop in the price of oil. so far we've talked about economic recovery. now it's a situation potentially worse than the financial crisis of 2007. they reckon they're out of ammunition to fight the down turn. so it's time for a change in thinking. >> we continue to rely on the central bangers doing more queuing. they had run out of ammunition or because they had been the
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heroes of the last four or five years. it is now time for the finance ministers, for the trade ministers, for the environment ministers, for education ministers, it's a time to go structural. it's a time to go green. it's a time to go institutionalism. it's a time to go social. it's a time to do all the structural measures that we did not take. >> but is it too late? markets and currencies are already crashing, and here in europe the breaks are so strongly applied the real struggle to get moving again. >> i think we should work harder particularly in europe, but also in elsewhere to cut debt, restructure debt more aggressively than we did, and i think we made a mistake in not boosting demand more strongly at once. i think we introduced austerity too soon in the u.k. so we don't get any momentum. >> and so the talk goes on. how bad are things really? what do we do now?
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billions are a--opinions are as abundant as the snow. >> when they talk about the state of the world, when they see it's a bunch of rich people in the middle of a ski resort in the middle of water, but what they try to do is bring people literally from all over the world to get them talking. that includes those who may be struggling with international relations at the moment. think of russia, it has become involved with the war in syria, fallen out with turkey, and accused of adopting a cold war mentality. >> with hillary clinton and donald trump, relations with russia should be treated with respect. the isolations that many people tried to impose is hopefully going to become a thing of the past in year.
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>> with oil taking a dive below $28 a barrel, even russia with its hopeful tone knows that 2016 will be tough. and to think it's only january. kamahl santamaria, al jazeera. >> hundreds of people have broken into moldova's parliame parliament. >> u.s. politician sarah palin is backing donald trump to be the next president. the highest profile. >> we are ready for a change. we are troops deserve the best. a new command center chief who's track record of success has
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proven he is the master at the art of the deal. he is one who would when to negotiate. only one kind's record of success proves he is the master of the art of the deal. he is beholden to no one but we the people. how refreshing. he's perfectly positioned to let you make america great again. >> television show is giving palestinians a chance to choose a new president in theory. auditions are held for contestant who is think they can do a better job than the much criticized real one. >> it has all th the ingredients of a successful dramatic tv series. dramatic music, contestants, judges and a prize. but the president isn't like other competitions. the winner isn't awarded a record credit or cash. the top prize is the palestinianen presidency, at least hypothetically.
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these auditions in the occupied west bank are for the second series of the president in order to make it to the next round contestants are given only a few minutes to impress judging with their ideas of how to solver issues such as unemployment, political infighting and the conflict with israel. >> i'm focusing on projects that allow for palestinians to remain steadfast, to be able to carry on and find the future that meets their ambition. >> my priority would be to make an all inclusive international program that will bring in all the ports under the plo to reinforce positions and the belonging of a culture. >> the success of the president has much to do with the growing frustration with the real life president mahmood abbas. recent opinion poll by the policy and service found two-thirds they want their
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80-year-old leader to resign. despite the term ending six years ago, is far less than the little he has accomplished during his 11 years in power. >> his legacy will be that he showed to take small steps and to be very, very slow and implementing them. >> the president's unpopularity is not lost on those contestan contestants. all hearsay he would be a better leader. it's up to the public to decide who will go on to win. >> although hundreds of reality show competitors believe they can do a better job than president abbas, he, of course, remains the palestinian leader. and with no elections in sight he'll continue to be so for the foreseeable future. despite the fact that the vast
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majority of palestinians want him to resign. al jazeera, bethlehem in the occupied west bank. >> and our website is www.aljazeera.com. www.aljazeera.com. [♪ music ] this week on "talk to al jazeera" - chef and restaurateur marcus samuelsson. >> being able to have windows into three, four different communities is something that i feel privileged to the swedish-raised celebrity cook was born if ethiopia but group in scannedan ava. he and his sister were adopted after their mother died from sh